As the 2026 Big East Tournament gets set to tip off, Creighton is in an unfamiliar position. For the first time since 2015, they know that their only path to the NCAA Tournament is to win the auto bid. In every year since, they’ve either a lock before heading to NYC or on the bubble with an opportunity to play themselves into an at-large bid.
Not so this year.
They’ve won just six times since the calendar flipped to 2026, and they’ve lost eight of their last 11 games. They snuck into the top five in the league to earn a bye to Thursday’s quarterfinal thanks in large part to DePaul dropping their final two games, getting there almost in spite of themselves. And while the reward for that seed is one fewer game, the matchups on their side of the bracket are arguably much tougher: Seton Hall and, if they manage to escape the Pirates, (probably) top-seeded St. John’s, a pair of physical opponents that CU struggled against in the regular season.
On Monday before departing for New York, Greg McDermott praised his team for sticking together and remaining connected even as the losses piled up.
“I think coming off the two tough losses at home, and the fashion with which we lost, to go on the road and have a really complete 20 minutes like we had the last last half of basketball was a I think a shot of confidence for this group,” McDermott said. “Hopefully it gives us some pretty good vibes moving into New York.”
First up is fourth-seed Seton Hall, led by unanimous Big East Coach of the Year Shaheen Holloway. They had a 20-11 overall mark and a 10-10 record in Big East play, one year removed from winning just two conference games and seven games overall. The +13 win improvement is tied for the biggest turnaround in program history, and currently ranks as the third-best win improvement in all of college basketball. Returning just two players from last year, they were picked dead last in the preseason poll, and instead finished fourth.
In two regular season meetings, Seton Hall won by two in Newark while Creighton won by one in Omaha. Both games featured wild comebacks and late game heroics. At Seton Hall in January, the Jays led by as many as 16 points in the second half only to see the Pirates rally for an improbable win. At Creighton in February, the Jays trailed 67-58 with 1:27 to play, and had just a 1.5% chance of victory according to KenPom. They ended the game on an 11-1 run to steal it, as Nik Graves buried the game-winning three with 2.5 seconds left.
“They try to disrupt you with their physicality and their full-court pressure,” McDermott said on Monday. “We’re going to have to rebound. We have to take care of the basketball. I think that’s where it starts against a Seton Hall team that thrives on forcing turnovers, blocking shots, and scoring after offensive rebounds.”
In the two regular season meetings, Creighton mostly did OK in those areas save for one poor stretch in each game. The timing of that poor stretch was important to the outcome.
When they lost in Newark, the bad stretch unfortunately came at the end of the game. CU started the second half 7-of-9 from the floor in building a 16-point lead, and through the first 25 minutes of the game, they had committed just four turnovers. Over the final 15 minutes, they shot 3-of-18 and had seven turnovers.
When they won in Omaha, the worst stretch came before halftime. CU had 18 turnovers that led to 23 points for Seton Hall, though they cut those numbers to six and nine in the second half. They offset it by turning 14 Pirate turnovers into 21 points for themselves. Both teams had nine offensive rebounds, and Creighton had a slight 13-12 edge in second chance points. The Jays also had a 10-9 edge in free throws made. And while Seton Hall outscored Creighton 34-20 in the paint, the Jays more than made up for it by outscoring them 39-15 on threes.
Creighton led the Big East in three-pointers made this season (averaging 9.9 per game), relying heavily on spacing and perimeter shooting. Conversely, Seton Hall is last in the conference in made threes (4.77 per game) but boasts a stingy defense that only allows 65.1 points per contest. That’s important to note, because the Jays erased a deficit in other areas — especially in the paint — by getting hot from deep.
Individually, Adam “Budd” Clark (12.4 ppg., 4.7 apg.), A.J. Staton-McCray (12.1 ppg.) and Tajuan Simpkins (10.1 ppg.) lead the Pirates in scoring. Clark had 28 points in the two previous meetings, though he took a ton of shots to get there: he was 9-of-25 from two-point range and 3-of-4 from three. Clark also had six steals (four in Newark, two in Omaha).
Staton-McCray scored 11 in Omaha and eight in Newark; he was a combined 7-of-21 from two-point range and 1-of-3 from deep. Interestingly, he had one lonely rebound and just two assists between the two games, with zero steals or blocks. So while he scored 19 points, he did little else.
Simpkins scored nine total points in a sixth-man role off the bench, with five of those points coming at the line. And Elijah Fisher was the only player to score in double figures in both games. He had 10 both times, and did it efficiently (3-of-6 in Newark, 3-of-5 in Omaha).
Inside, Seton Hall has a decided advantage with 6’9” Stephon Payne and 6’10” Najai Hines backing him up. Payne had 11 rebounds, two steals and a block in Omaha to go along with six points; Hines scored eight with nine rebounds in Newark, the last of which was an offensive board that led to the game-winning bucket. Those two have combined for 103 of Seton Hall’s 176 blocked shots.
Senior point guard Nik Graves said after two previous meetings, the players know what they need to do to win. Sticking to the game plan when the inevitable rough patch hits and not allowing it to snowball on them could very well decide who ultimately wins.
“The coaches are going to put a great game plan together and we just got to go out and execute it at the end of the day,” Graves said. “The coaches can’t play for us, but they can put us in a position to do what we need to do to get the win. We know they’re very aggressive on the defensive end, and we just got to prepare for that in practice. We’ve seen them twice now. Both have been really really good games, so we know it’s going to be a dog fight.”
And if Creighton manages to win?
“Now you’re likely facing a team that’s very similar and very good at the same areas (as Seton Hall),” McDermott said about the possibility of meeting top-seeded St. John’s. “So, I think in particular those are the areas we have to have to thrive in. And of course, you’ve got to shoot the basketball. When we’ve shot the basketball pretty well, we’ve played some pretty good games.”
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Creighton led the Big East with 9.90 three-pointers per game, while Seton Hall was last in that category with 4.77 three-pointers per contest. The first time the teams met in Newark, Creighton was 6-for-27 from deep while Seton Hall made 2-of-7 triple tries. In the rematch, Creighton made 13-of-30 three-pointers, including a game-winning shot by Nik Graves with 2.5 seconds left, to overcome the Pirates 5-of-9 marksmanship (a season-high 55.6 percent) from deep.
Greg McDermott owns 19 wins in conference tournaments at CU (12 in the Big East Tournament, 7 in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament). He led Creighton to the 2012 and 2013 MVC Tournament titles, and has trips to the conference tournament title game in 7-of-14 seasons with a tournament (excluding 2020’s shortened tourney due to COVID-19). McDermott owns a 12-11 record at the Big East Tournament. The other 10 coaches in the league own a combined 21 Big East Tournament victories at their current schools
Despite a 9-11 record this winter, Creighton finished fifth in the Big East. It’s the 10th straight season CU has finished in the top-five or better, good for the league’s longest streak in more than three decades. It’s the longest active streak in the Big East, and third-longest in league history. Georgetown finished in the top-five in the first 11 seasons of the Big East from 1979-80 to 1989-90, and Syracuse did it in 15 years in a row from 1981-82 to 1995-96.
Nik Graves is 6-for-33 from the field over the last three games, but he’s found other ways to be productive. The senior guard has made 26-of-29 foul shots in that time while also dishing 23 assists against just five turnovers. He’s Creighton’s only player in the last 20 years to make eight or more free throws in three straight games.
Creighton and Seton Hall have split 34 all-time meetings, 17-17, but Creighton has won 11 of the last 14 meetings, and seven of the past eight encounters. The teams split two regular-season meetings, with Seton Hall winning 56-54 in Newark on Jan. 4th before Creighton took the rematch, 69-68 on Feb. 7th in Omaha.
Creighton is 0-2 all-time on neutral floors against the Pirates, losing a 1991 NCAA Tournament Second Round game in Salt Lake City and a 2016 Big East Tournament quarterfinal in New York City. In the last 14 meetings, Creighton is 11-0 when scoring 61 or more points against the Pirates compared to an 0-3 mark when being held to 60 or less.
On March 12, 2021 Creighton outlasted UConn 59-56 in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament. It was a back and forth Friday night semifinal showdown packed with drama. There were gigantic shots from both sides. It was physical: UConn’s R.J. Cole left the game to get stitches after landing face-first on the court while trying to initiate contact and draw a foul, and Creighton’s Shereef Mitchell left the game after bumping heads with a UConn player.
There were 10 ties and three lead changes, and with the score tied at 48 apiece and just under eight minutes left, UConn’s James Bouknight scored five straight to give them a 53-48 lead. It looked like this was the moment where one team was going to seize the momentum and the game, and it was looking like that team was not Creighton.
Not so fast.
“Coach told us if we get a couple of stops we’re going to win this game,” Jefferson said. “And I was just telling everybody in the huddle, keep fighting, keep fighting, get some stops on the defensive end. And, man, I’m proud of my guys.”
CU immediately responded with a 9-0 run to grab ahold of the game, starting with a fastbreak layup from Marcus Zegarowski where he drove under the basket, flipped it behind himself, and used the glass to bank it in. A ridiculously gutsy shot in an empty gym. In that moment, on this stage? Who does that? Marcus Zegarowski.
💼 @MZegarowski1 💼 pic.twitter.com/E9YrykjKQA
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) March 13, 2021
Damien Jefferson then tied it on an equally gutsy three.
That’s a 𝙗𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙙 𝙗𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙙 𝙢𝙖𝙣 pic.twitter.com/qGNZSaydTO
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) March 13, 2021
Bishop added a layup to give CU a 55-53 lead, and then Zegarowski extended it to 57-53 with this tough pullup jumper. With 2:32 to go, suddenly the Jays led by four.
𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙪𝙨 𝙒𝙖𝙨 𝙈𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙈𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝 😤 pic.twitter.com/zkjDHmlaCu
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) March 13, 2021
Still holding that lead 30 seconds later, they sealed the win with a pair of free throws from Mitch Ballock — and a heart attack of a defense sequence where they gave the Huskies three chances at a tie before finally securing the victory clinching rebound.
What a win! pic.twitter.com/6UYiJwU7EZ
— Creighton Men’s Basketball (@BluejayMBB) March 13, 2021
Seton Hall is favored by 2.5 in Vegas, and KenPom predicts a three-point win. In other words, another nail biter. If that’s the case, I think CU figures out a way to sneak out a win.
Creighton 71, Seton Hall 68